OBIEE hidden column writeback

Sometimes you want to use a "hidden" column for a writeback procedure. Problem is if you use the conventional Hide properties of a column it's also not visible for the write back.

Workaround: use a CSS hide:

Enable the "Use Custom CSS Style " enter display:none. Both for the field and the header.

(Be aware the original value is still available in the source of the page!)

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OBIEE bypassing the presentation / web cache

In addition to settings mentioned in this article:  http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/11/obiee-presentation-services-cache.html. You sometimes you want to bypass the presentation / cache for development purposes. Or more often when you get weird write back behaviour. Add this to the instanceconfig file:

<CacheMaxExpireMinutes>-1</CacheMaxExpireMinutes>

<CacheMinExpireMinutes>-1</CacheMinExpireMinutes>

<CacheMinUserExpireMinutes>-1</CacheMinUserExpireMinutes>

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OBIEE using oracle stored procedure to fill report

Oracle stored procedures by default don't return recordsets, but sometimes a query is to slow or complex. Especially if it contains multiple outerjoins or complex statistical calculations. (yes, if know how to handle table types there is an other workaround see: http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:666224436920  )

In this demo I will show you a workaround. First you need to tables, one for the parameters and one for the resultset.

CREATE TABLE SH.DEMOPAR
( ID NUMBER, SDATE DATE DEFAULT trunc(sysdate
- 183), EDATE DATE DEFAULT
trunc(sysdate), MACHINENUMBER VARCHAR2(30 BYTE) )
;

CREATE
UNIQUE INDEX SH.DEMOPAR_PK ON SH.DEMOPAR (ID) ;
CREATE
TABLE SH.DEMODATE
(ID NUMBER, MDATE DATE, VALUE NUMBER, INTERPOL NUMBER, C1
NUMBER, C2 NUMBER ) ;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX SH.DEMODATE_PK ON SH.DEMODATE
(ID, MDATE) ;

For the parameter table you need to construct an XML file for the write-back functionality:

-<-webmessagetables sawm="com.siebel.analytics.web/message/v1">
-<-webmessagetable lang="en-us" table="Messages" system="WriteBack">
-<-webmessage name="demosavepar">
-<-XML>
-<-writeBack connectionPool="CP_dateDemo">
-<-insert>INSERT
INTO DEMOPAR VALUES('@{c0}','@{c1}','@{c2}','@{c3}')
-<-update>UPDATE DEMOPAR SET SDATE = '@{c1}',EDATE =
'@{c2}',MACHINENUMBER = '@{c3}' WHERE ID= '@{c0}'
-<-/writeBack>
-<-/XML>
-<-/webmessage>
-<-/webmessagetable>
-<-/webmessagetables>

Alter the "-<-" in "<" and place the file in ?:\{OracleBI}\web\msgdb\customMessages. Next restart the presentation server. Add both tables to two separate connection pools in your repository! Be sure the cache is off.

Make one report for the parameter table and add the write-back functionality.
Next go to the connection pool for your datatable and open the "Execute before query" tab:


Here you can put your script to execute the stored procedure:
Now you can put both reports on a dashboard!
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